


Moment:a particular time : a precise point in time

by scarsgirl



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: AU, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Bittersweet, M/M, No Sex, No Smut, Not Beta Read, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 13:15:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6117577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarsgirl/pseuds/scarsgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len and Ray have a discussion about boundaries and choices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moment:a particular time : a precise point in time

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is going to sound strange, but I'm not into ABO fic, yet I've written one. This little story got stuck in my head though and making it an ABO story just seemed to make sense for the story, so here it is. Let me know what you think or kudo if you like it.

The sound of soft footfalls echoing from the corridor leading to the ship's cabins put Len on edge instantly. He knew that Sara, Rip, Jax and Mick were on lockdown for the night, but that didn’t mean that one of them hadn’t found a way to override Gideon and make their way out of their rooms. He turned the Captain’s seat around slowly, ready to fight. His heart skipped a beat (but just the one, that’s all he would allow himself) when he saw Raymond hesitating at the entrance to the main command room.

“What the hell are you doing out of medical, Raymond?”

“He left against my advice, Captain Snart.” Gideon chimed in from the ship’s center console. She'd been a great help to him since he'd taken on the mantle of interim Captain till Hunter was out of his rut.

“Yes, thank you, Gideon. You could have told me before he left medical or even better not have let him out in the first place!”

“You know I may be a little out of it right now, but not so out of it that I’m going to let an AI decide what I can and cannot do or you decide where I can or cannot go.” Len took a deep breath trying to center himself so he wouldn’t lash out at Ray. He was in vulnerable enough state as it was. As he let the breath travel through his body, he fought to keep himself from savoring the sweet smell of Ray’s heat.

“I’m not trying to dictate anything to you, Raymond, but I’m telling you that getting your scent all over this ship is only going to make things harder on rest of the crew.”

The kid had the sense to look slightly embarrassed at Len’s chastisement. 

“I just needed a few minutes. I’ve been looking at the same four walls for three days. I’m going to go nuts if I don’t talk to someone who’s not an artificial intelligence.”

“Stein and Kendra not giving you enough attention?” Len said snidely. “Poor little rich boy turns a ship full of Alpha’s inside-out, and you can’t stand not being the center of universe for a few minutes?”

Ray’s face took on a new shade of red that had nothing to do with the slight heat flush he’d been sporting for days. Len had either embarrassed him or made him angry. Good! Maybe he’d listen and get back to medical before one of the Alpha’s in the back got riled up.

“That’s not...!” Ray left his spot in the corridor and entered the room fully as he spoke. Len noticed that for a guy who’d spent the last three days getting off he looked more tightly wound than Len had ever seen him. “I… I didn’t mean for this to happen. My suppressants have worked for years and even when I was off them…” Ray’s face took on that sadness he tried very hard not to show sometimes. Len knew Ray had been mated for a time. A mate who had died right in front of his eyes.

Ray shook himself back from where ever he had just gone. “I’ve never sent anyone into a rut by accident in my life, much less four people at once.” Len could see the question in Ray’s eyes. The same question he’d seen in everyone else’s eyes when they started to respond to Ray’s heat and enter a rut when he did not.

It was a question the rest of the crew had the sense not to ask. He doubted though that after days of stewing on the problem Ray would be willing to keep his questions to himself.

Len stiffened slightly as Ray came closer. He knew Ray was a scientist through and through and probably testing out some theory he had about Len’s response or lack-thereof rather.

“You should head back to medical, Ray.” He said as he turned back to ship’s view screen. The colors of the vortex ebbed and flowed as the ship floated in-between space and time.

“Stop ordering me around, Snart!” Ray’s vehemence nearly had him turning back to the man in anger, but he refused to give Ray the satisfaction. Instead he huffed, “You are a stubborn fool, aren’t you?”

“I think this is where I say something about pots and kettles,” Ray said standing much closer now. Len closed his eyes for moment as he gathered himself. He wasn’t worried about losing control, he wouldn’t allow it, but he was becoming fast aware that he was going to have to have a conversation he’d hoped to avoid. 

“This is going to sound really… like I’m… uh...” Ray struggling to speak? He almost wanted to order Gideon to keep a record of this moment for posterity. 

“Raymond, spit it out. I don’t actually have all the time in the world.”

He listened as Ray began to pace behind him. “So, I know that you kind of hate me a little,” Len thought about arguing the point, but he knew it would only add fuel to Ray’s fire, “but I also think that you, I mean when my heat first starting coming on I had a feeling that maybe it was in response to…”

“If your heat was triggered by anything or anyone,” Len’s voice was sharp as he spoke, “it certainly wasn’t me.” Len looked over his shoulder to find Ray standing with his arms wrapped around himself staring at the floor. It made him look vulnerable in a way that Len suspected few ever got to see. Ray lifted his gaze to Len’s and their eyes met for a moment. Any other time, any other person, he would have held the gaze till the other looked away, but for now he knew his best strategy was to keep his focus off of Ray.

“I’m not saying,” Ray sounded like he was just barely holding his emotions back, “that it was, but I think it’s pretty obvious by now that I have feelings for you, I mean I risked the team for you, and I sometimes get the feeling that you don’t hate me quite as much as you seem too,” The lady doth protest too damn much Mick had said. “And I just sort of thought if anyone should have responded to my heat...I mean Rip says he’s like 90% Beta and he responded, so I don’t understand why you didn’t.” He could hear Ray getting closer.

Damn, he did not want to have this conversation. “Raymond, I want you to stop, stay where you're at and listen to what I’m about to say to you.”

Ray huffed, sounding exasperated, “I don’t suppose you’d do me the courtesy of actually turning around to face me?”

Len debated for a moment. Ray deserved the truth face-to-face, but Len, Dammit! Len wanted to spit this out without having to deal with someone else’s pity or sadness and looking into Ray’s far too expressive and open face would just be too much.

“My father, miserable abusive failure that he was, was an Alpha too. He used the fact that he was born an Alpha as an excuse,” Lisa’s sweet little face bruised and swollen flashed in front of his eyes, “for taking his misery and failure out on others. I decided a long time ago that I would never let myself get out of control like that. That nothing was going to get under my skin or dictate how I reacted to anyone else regardless of my designation.”

“Len?” That sadness was back, but this time it was directed at him and he couldn’t stand it. “I didn’t react to your heat not because I can’t, but because I won’t. I got rid of that part of myself a long time ago, Raymond, and despite the fact that I don’t completely hate you, I am not going to change and I am not going to be able to give you what you want. I don’t have it in me.”

Ray was silent, as Len caught his breath. He felt wrung out. 

“Snart, Len, I’m…”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Raymond!” Len sounded mean, felt mean when spoke. “You’ve satisfied your curiosity. Now go get your ass back in medical!”

He listened to Ray’s footfalls as he began his retreat. Len was grateful that he was getting the response he’d hoped for from Ray and not an appeal to reconsider. Ray wouldn’t have been the first to ask him change or try to ‘fix’ him, but Len had felt, had known, that for all his eagerness and enthusiasm Ray was not a man who would try to impose his will or desires on an unwilling partner. A feeling that was proving to be true and an aspect of Ray's personality that he was grateful for.

He heard Ray’s steps slow and come to a stop somewhere close to the corridor leading to the Medical bay. “Thank you for telling me that, Len. I know it wasn’t easy for you, but it means a lot to me that you were honest about… about everything.”

Len didn’t respond, he couldn’t in that moment. Leave it to Raymond to thank someone for rejecting him. He waited in silence until Ray finally decided to take his leave with a quiet, “Goodnight, Captain.” 

Len allowed himself a moment to mourn the man he might have been had his attempt to change his past been a success. Maybe he could have turned out to be the kind of man who would have been there for Raymond through his heat? A Man, an Alpha, that would have been able to sate Ray’s body _and_ take care of the heart the man wore on his sleeve for anyone and everyone to see. But Len didn’t believe in maybe’s or regrets. He’d chosen his course a long time ago and wouldn’t change it, not in this way, not for anyone.


End file.
